Emergency-knuckle for car-couplings.



G. H. GILMAN & J. H. BROWN.

EMERGENCY KNUCKLE FOR CAB. COUPLINGS.

LED JUNE 15, 1914 Patented Oct. 20, 1914.

UNITED STATE P T OFFICE GEORGE n. GILMAN, or s'r. PAUL, MINNESOTA, A D, JAMES H. Bnow v, ornas'r SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA,

EMERGENCY-KNUCKLE FOR CAR-COUPLINGS.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that we, GEoRGE H. GILMAN, residing at St. Paul, in the county of Ramsey and State of Minnesota, and JAMES H; BROWN, residing at East San Diego, in the county of San Diego and State of California, citizens of the United States, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Emergency-Knuckles for Car- Couplings; and we do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to railway draft appliances, and more especially to couplings; and the objectof same is to produce an improved emergency'knuckle which will serve as a buffer for defective car couplings of a variety of types.

Briefly stated the invention consists in providing a knuckle or buffer with a head, a channeled tail, and an arm pivotally mounted within the tail and on the same bolt or pin and extending'through its channel and to the rear thereof but capable of use or of being omitted as the exigencies of the case may demand.

The preferred construction of our invention is set forth in detail in the following specification, reference beinghad therein to,

the accompanying drawings wherein- Figure l is a plan view of this emergency knuckle or buffer, showing the arm as closed back into the channel of-the tail, Fig. 2 is a horizontal section showing the arm as swung partly out of the channel. Fig. 3 is a horizontal section showing a coupling whose draw bar is solid, and a plan View of the emergency knuckle as used therein without its arm; Fig. l is a perspective View of the arm detached.

The present invention is designed as an improvement on our prior Patent #609,095, dated August 16, 1898. In this case as in that, the device is intended as a temporary substitute for the knuckle of a vertical-plane car coupling of the standard Master Car Builders Association type. It often happens that a knuckle becomes broken, defective, or otherwise unfit for service, possibly while the car or train is quite remote from the shops, and in order not to delay traffic an emergency knuckle becomes desirable for use in the draw-head, so that the cars can be Specification. of Letters Patent.

held together until. a point is reached where thecoupling can be permanently repaired. There are so many types of car couplings now 111 use, however, that, in order to produce an emergency knuckle which will fit almost any of themand yet be capable of yielding or buffing when the brakes are applied to the locomotive, we find a knuckle of this kind having a rigid tail is sometimes undesirable. It follows that a structure involvmg a removable tail adapts itself readily to certain types of couplings, and when the tail is employed it assists in the bufiing action so that the knuckle responds more freely and is not so apt to bebroken.

In the preferred embodiment of our invention as illustrated herewith, the body port1on of the knuckle indicatedat 1 has a head 2 whose forward end is provided with a substantially flat face 3 and is bifurcated into arms 4 pierced with upright registering holes 5 as usual. In rear of thehead proper the body is provided with a tail piece 6 standing at an acute angle to the head, interna-lly channeled as at 7 and with the upper and lower walls of the channel pierced with holes or eyes s through which passes the vertical pin or bolt 10 usually employed in car couplings of this type'and by means of which the present device is temporarily mounted in adefective car coupling. The

head of the latter is indicated at H and its draw bar at D. The drawings show only two types of standard car couplings, but our invention is intended for application to mosttypes now in general use.

Instead of extending the tail rigidly to the rear within a hollow draw bar D, our present invention contemplates the provision of a separate member which we call an arm 9. At its forward end it has an eye 18 adapted to register with the eyes 8 in the other member and receive the pin 10, its body is bent as at 11 and notched as at 12 opposite said bend, from this point the arm tapers rearwardly and it is preferably provided with additional notches 13 and 14: as shown, these notches being on the inner side or that side opposite the bend, and its lower side is cut away as at 15.

It will not be necessary for the purpose of this specification to illustrate the various forms of couplings and draw bars with which the arm may be used on account of its peculiar structure, but we consider it 4 p I Patented Oct. 20, 1914 Application filed June 15, 1914. Serial No. 845,254.

sufiicient to say that the details shown and described do give it a wide range of use. Even when the emergencyknuckle is to be applied to some type of coupling where it is impossible to use the arm at all, the body portion of this knuckle or bufi'er can be used because the ordinary pin 10 will pass through its eyes 8 and the short tail 6 will stand within the head H if it does not pro ject far into the draw bar D.

In use, when the knuckle of a couplingof any of the standard types becomes broken or defective, the pin 10 is lifted and the head is thrown aside; then an emergency knuckle as herein described is brought into use and put into place and the pin restored. If the structure of the coupling is such that the arm 9 may be employed, that also is put into place and the pin 10 passes through its eye lit-otherwise this member is left out. In any event the tail 6 projects to the rear into the shank or draw bar D of the coupler, and the emergency knuckle serves temporarily to connect the cars so that traffic need not be interrupted. Swinging slightly on the bolt or pin 10, its tail 6 vice to respond to the bufiing action ordiof course is stronger. On reaching a point where permanent repairs can be made the pin 10 is withdrawn and the entire device removed ina manner which will be clear.

\Ve do not wish to be limited to the precise details of construction nor to the materials and proportions of parts.

What is claimed as new is:

1. An emergency knuckle for car couplings, the same comprising a body portion consisting of a head and a channeled tail projecting rearwardly at an acute angle therefrom and having an upright hole for the pivot pin, which hole intersects said channel; and an arm whose forward end is of a size to enter said channel and is pierced with an upright eye adapted to be mounted loosely on said pivot pin, the body of the arm being bent at a point opposite the rear end of said tail so that the latter has a slight lost motion between the arm and the side of the draw head.

2. An emergency knuckle for car couplings, the same comprising a body portion consisting ofa head and a channeled tail projecting rearwardly therefrom and having an uprighthole for the pivot pin, which hole intersects said channel; and an arm whose body is bent at about its mid length I and notched in one edge and whose forward end is of a size to enter said channel and is pierced with an upright eye adapted to be f mounted loosely on said pivot pin.

has a little lost motion which causes the del 'In testimony whereof we affix our signatures in presence of two witnesses. narily imparted to railway trains in transit 1 so that it will not easily become brokeni This is the case whether the arm 9 is employed or not; but with the arm the device GEORGE H. GILMAN. JAMES H. BROWN.

Witnesses to signature of George H. Gilman:

GEORGE G. CHAPIN, FLORENCE JoHNsoN. WVitnesses to signature of James H.

: Brown:

FRANK W. RYAN, S.'NIELSEN. I

copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

. Washington, D. 0- 

